Silent Hill: The Short Message Hits 1M Downloads

It took less than a week for the free-to-play Silent Hill: The Short Message to break the 1 million download milestone. Konami and developer studio HexaDrive shared the round number in social networks, as well as thanked all the players.

Recall, “Short Message” was shown on January 31 during the State of Play show and released on PlayStation 5 on the same day. Title is a small horror game with a first-person view, in which you need to solve puzzles and escape from monsters. In the story, while searching for her friend, the protagonist Anita finds herself in an abandoned apartment building with a bad reputation.

Critics and gamers gave Silent Hill: The Short Message cool reviews. On Metacritic the horror game has 51 points from the press and 6.4 points from users. HexaDrive’s creation was praised for its creepy atmosphere, skillful implementation of modern elements in the game and soundtrack. However, among the disadvantages is the bland gameplay, which is reduced to reading notes and chases, as well as not the best plot.

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The first 26 minutes from Silent Hill: The Short Message

Silent Hill: The Short Message, which has been rumored for a long time, jumped out of the box during State of Play. The first few minutes of this experimental Konami project will be introduced to you in this video from IGN.

“Short Message” is a small horror game with a first-person view. The new Silent Hill draws on the phenomenon of social networks and highlights not the most attractive side of them: how individual unpleasant comments over time can grow into a real bullying and negatively affect the emotional and psychological state of a person.

According to IGN journalists, The Short Message takes about a couple hours to complete. The main character Anita goes in search of her missing friend Maya and finds herself in a creepy building with a bad reputation. During her mission the girl wanders through the corridors, which are pasted with notes with offensive content.

There is no combat system in the game, so in case of danger you should get away as soon as possible. “Screamers here are quite few, and the game can’t be called a purebred survival-horror. Instead, the elements of psychological horror are pressed upon you,” shared IGN’s Daniel Robson. The Short Message is steeped in themes like loneliness, domestic violence, bullying, suicide, self-harm, and destructive jealousy.

According to producer Motoi Okamoto of Konami, with The Short Message, the studio wanted to do an experiment to try out something new and see if the fresh elements would work or not. In addition, the creation of the horror involved specialists with relatively little experience but a huge love for the franchise. Therefore, the “short film” helped them to get their hands on it. HexaDrive’s talented staff, as well as monster designer Masahiro Ito and composer Akira Yamaoka, also worked on the story.

Silent Hill: The Short Message is available now on PlayStation 5 for free. Russian text translation is available. Konami is preparing a whole wave of new Silent Hill titles – Silent Hill 2 remake from Bloober Team, Silent Hill f from Taiwanese NeoBards and other projects are in development.